I have just escaped death, and from what I can tell I am one of three to do so at this point in time. I have had to re-live one year of my life in order to do so, thanks to The Teacher. You see, I was dying. I had a tumour in my brain, and had been living in a hospital for the last three weeks. Doctors had discovered that it had gotten too large to surgically remove without killing me or having severe brain damage, so I accepted dying without operation.

As I was lying there, I thought about how I was going to die, so I tried to make the best of the situation. I asked for a phone and tried to call my brother and parents over. I was going to make a will, even though I didn’t have much. They nurse said that she got a busy signal for both my parents number and my brother. Not thinking of who else I could call, I just lied there, thinking of my fate. Would I go to Hell or Heaven? Would I be re-encarnated? Would I just die? I couldn’t think of much else, so then I just was quiet, and went to sleep.

I woke up to find out that today was the estimated day I would die, so they asked if they should call my family again. I said yes, and so they did. When they nurse left, I suddenly got a flaming pain in my head, and I started to yell out in pain. As I was about to blackout, everything stopped. Even time. And then she showed up.

A woman that I had never met prior to this day was standing in front of me. I hadn’t seen her come in, nor did I hear her. She introduced herself as The Teacher, and asked me to follow her. I didn’t notice I wasn’t in the hospital before she asked. I also noticed I no longer had the pain in my head I had before. I immediately asked why, and she just stayed silent. She was pretty. She looked young, maybe in her early thirties, but she made me feel strange, like she was going to try to seduce me and kill me, like in one of the secret agent movies.

As we approached our destination, she slowly began to hunch over, and become more like a corpse, or even some form of gargoyle. She turned to me, and told me she was going to save my life, so long as I make my current one better. I agreed, not knowing that I was making a deal that I would regret.

I suddenly woke up in my house, exactly one year ago from today. I of course thought that I had sone sort of nightmare, that I had never had tumours, that I had never died. Then I saw her standing next to me.

She looked grotesque now, but still had some of the features of the lady she used to be. She looked like her face was smashed in, she was pale, she had multiple gunshots wounds, she was missing part of her right arm, she had tire tracks on her, she had a slit throat, but the part that made me feel scared was that she had a large bumb in her skull, meaning that she had my tumours.

“Thank you”, I said, “Did you really just heal me of my tumours?”

“Yes. In order to live, all you must do is make your life better. If you can do that, you may live.”, she responded in a raspy, gurgly version of her original voice.

I got out of bed and began my morning routine, and started my first day… by almost getting hit in the face by a baseball. I yelled at the kid who threw that, and scared him off. Then a pigeon crapped on me. The entire first day was filled with bad things happening to me and getting upset about them. How was I supposed to make my life better if everything makes it worse?

After about three weeks, I was mugged. I had about $300 in my wallet, not to mention credit cards and my ID card. I was shot in the foot during the process as well. I then saw her again. She had been showing up recently, and I don’t know why. I assumed that meant I was doing the right thing, but I couldn’t do anything after being mugged. So I just ignored her presence and left.

At the turn of the New Year, I was at a party with friends, friends that weren’t all the fond of being sober. We got drunk together and I passed out. When I came to, she was there, standing over me like a vulture, trying to find the best part to eat first. I asked why she was here, and she responded with, “Shape up, or I will kill you.” She didn’t come back for the next three months.

I tried to make my life better, but bad things just kept happening. My pet fish died, the power went out for over a week so I couldn’t get any work done, (nor could I watch my favorite TV shows for that matter) and I was mugged at least three more times. I don’t know why people think I’m such a good target for mugging. She showed up at my house after I got back from work, and she was on my bed. She looked angry, and she was holding a whip. I asked her to get off my bed so I could sleep. She got up and left, but not before lashing out with her whip on my back. I was knocked to the ground, and was in immense pain. She wasn’t seen again until August.

At that time, I was once again diagnosed with tumours in my brain. I asked if they could do surgery immediately, and they said that I didn’t have enough money. I then saw her standing behind the doctor, smiling deviously. When the doctor left, she said, “You didn’t make your life better. You have a month to prove to me you’re worth sparing.” Then she disappeared.

I was in shock. I was really going to die. I realized that my life was filled with hatred, laziness, greed and depression. I needed to fix my life before I ended it, so I immediately ran out of the doctor’s office to try to do things to redeem myself. I donated money to charity, I worked at a homeless shelter, I tried to get more work done at the office, and I swore off drinking for the month. However, when the tumours got too big, I wound up in the same situation as before. Lying in a hospital bed, one day left to live.

I once again felt the flaming pain in my head, and started to blackout once more, when she showed up once more. She asked if I felt like I had redeemed myself. I thought about it. I explained how I had volunteered at a homeless shelter, I got a promotion at work, and that I haven’t drank since she spoke to me. She asked again if she thought I had redeemed myself. I realized that I hadn’t. I had drank my last year to live away, yelled at people who were rude to me, and never really worked hard at anything.

“No.”, I said.

“That’s enough then.”, she responded. She left and I then blacked out. I woke up to find out that they had indeed found a way to remove my tumours, and that I would live to a ripe old age. I agreed to the surgery, and was healed enough to leave to hospital two days later. As I was about to leave, I asked if I could call my family. The nurse looked sad suddenly. The nurse said, “Didn’t you know? Your parents and brother died in a car crash trying to visit you. It was all over the news.”

She spared my life but killed the people I loved. As you read this, I may already be dead of depression fueled suicide. But who knows? Maybe my family could be shocked back to life, or something. I don’t know. I just hope The Teacher will save them too.